Republicans Supporting Healthcare Reform

From NPR

As various health care bills wind their way toward the House and Senate floors, the White House is soliciting support from some unlikely allies: Republicans. Recently such high-profile Republicans as California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tommy Thompson, health and human services secretary in the Bush administration, have come out in support of an overhaul. The administration hopes this will help win over moderates in Congress.

The former majority leader of the Senate, Republican Bill Frist, said last week that if he were in Congress, he’d take the heat and vote for an overhaul.

“I’m coming out very strongly in support of what’s going on in the Senate Finance Committee,” he said on CNN. “It’s bipartisan; I hope that it ends up being bipartisan. If not, I think it’s going to be a destructive bill. But it’s bipartisan, people working together, so we’re on the way there.”

Then there’s Mark McClellan, who ran Medicare under President George W. Bush.

“Congress needs to act. The health care issues facing this country are both major and urgent,” he said. “We have a real opportunity now to make some progress — not just on improving coverage, but also on improving health care. My hope is that we’ll take advantage of those opportunities.”

And then there’s Republican Bob Dole, another former Senate majority leader: “I think we need health care reform and we need it now. We don’t need it four or five years from now.”

Dole spoke to NPR’s political editor Ken Rudin a few weeks ago, and his stance has only gotten stronger since — that the Republican minority in Congress needs to be more flexible. He told the Kansas City Star on Thursday, “I don’t want the Republicans putting up a ‘no’ sign and saying, ‘We’re not open for business.’”

And there are more Republicans coming out — some after being nudged by the Obama administration: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (an independent running as the Republican nominee for reelection) and former Tennessee Sen. Howard Baker (another past majority leader), in addition to Schwarzenegger and Thompson. Thompson said he signed on to a joint statement with former House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt that says “failure to reach an agreement on health reform this year is not an acceptable option.”